Maradona, Simply Great (part two)
done so many times in their history and that day would not be the exception. First it would be Rummingge, to pull one back, as he did against France four years before. His effort would be followed by Rudi Voeller in getting the equalizer. At that point it was clear that the momentum had shifted over to Germany and I must admit that I thought they could win. As for myself personally I can not claim to have been pulling for them or not; as to me only Italy counts.
Germany kept on attacking and it was then that Maradona showed a quality which to be honest I never knew him to have; of a leader. True he had been an outstanding player though at times erratic in his form but till that day he had never been what I would call a leader on the field and it was then while not being on his best form and with team now facing the threat of Germany going up 3 to 2 that he stepped up and delivered a great pass to Burruchaga. It was a ball filtered through the German defense to Burruchaga; who was left one on one with Schumacher and made no mistake when putting the ball in to the net for Argentina’s third and winner.
Argentina was world champion for the second time in three world cups and now Maradona was no longer being hailed as arguably the greatest player of his day but of all time. He had won the world cup and was on top of the football world along with his country but there was more to it than that as far as I could see. Maradona was great; this my mind held little room for doubt but what was great about him? This is question I was able to understand for myself if for no one else.
Football for the most part up until I saw Maradona play in that world cup had come down to a few things which I have already mentioned in this article however Maradona went beyond these elementary things. For Maradona’s greatness was not limited to being able to be at the right place at right time or being able to hit the ball just right at any given moment or make a move or two that would free himself just enough to get off that shot but something that went beyond that. Maradona had the ability to do everything and then some and that some being controlling a ball like no one ever had. He would actually go through players with skill alone, where so many options did he have at his disposal to pass a player that it was the defender, how ever many there might be were bound to get passed or have to resort to committing a foul. This being the case and the only way to stop Maradona as it could be said that his body was ideal for the sport he practiced much like Jordan’s was for basketball. Maradona, stood at 168 cm and was stocky, perhaps such features would not have lend themselves to making him a great basketball player but for football they proved to be ideal as his low center of gravity made it difficult to knock off the ball when he had it plus his short legs made him very fast in short sprints.
It was after the 86 world cup that I spent the whole summer that followed Argentina’s win thinking if anybody ever had been that good and I could not think of anybody who had. Beckenbaur was serene and kept his cool organizing his team but was never brilliant though he did do the simple things well like bringing the ball up field and managing to make a pass but other this he had never come close to doing what Maradana had done in that world cup. Pele, was great in his time, scoring over a thousand goals but his time was one when the average game ended with a score of 5-3 and just about anybody could score as teams played with 5 forwards going up against 2 defenders. Also Pele played at time when a good ball controller was one would could bounce the ball on his knees and head and do it many times where in Maradona’s time this was something just about anybody could do.
Maradona had dominated Mexico 86 like nobody ever had in a world cup much like he had done in the Youth World Cup of 79 but those had not been the top professionals but youths, now it he had done the same to the great players of the day. I remember thinking back then that he should not have been allowed to play in such a tournament given he had already played with an adult national team but what could be done now. Should another league be created for him after what he had shown in Mexico 86?
His statistics had been good but in all reality five goals (one which even should have been disallowed) and five assists was not really all that impressive. Specially when considering for instance that Muller had scored 10 goals in 6 games in the world cup in 70, Fontaine 13 goals (in 6 games) in the world cup in 54 and Kocsis 11 goals (in 5 games) in the world cup in 54 but with Maradona it went beyond numbers. I do not always agree with Cossell but I would have to when it comes to statistics not always reveling the whole story. So many great plays that did not always lead to a goal though perhaps